Client

The largest retail chain Dixy has 2655 stores in 743 localities throughout Russia.

Task

In circumstances with the growing demand for digital solutions, Dixy wanted to create not just an app, but a kind of "store in the pocket" that will help customers make purchases.

Solution

Mobile app on Flutter

The Dixy task required a comprehensive solution, including design, engineering, backend development, development of its own design system and development of communication with users.

We suggested using cross-platform development and Flutter technology - it allows you to create an app simultaneously on two platforms: Android and iOS. This naturally accelerates the release cycle and optimizes the budget.

In addition to directly developing the application, it was necessary to establish its interaction with all internal and external Dixy systems. To do this, we suggested using a fault-tolerant server infrastructure.

The retailer's developers and employees monitored the state of the system by various metrics,added new monitoring and improved current ones by processing data in different sections.

Team

The app was developed by a team of ten people. The work used agile methodologies - Scrum and Kanban.

The Friflex team had 3 Flutter developers, a project manager, 2 Q&A engineers, 2 designers, and a copywriter.

Challenge

The main challenge in the development of the project was associated with the diverse IT landscape of Dixy. It was necessary to integrate a large number of internal systems in different languages, frameworks and protocols.

Work stages

• 1.

  Together with Dixy IT architects, we have chosen the architecture and technologies we plan to use. We proposed an upper-level scheme for the interaction of systems, data flows, justified the framework and technologies for mobile applications and software.

• 2.

  Creating a mind map together with the client's product team and design approval

• 3.

  Development of necessary design elements.

• 4.

  Iteratively running the final design on screens. Design and prototypes were prepared in Figma.

• 5.

  Running iterative server development from a sequential backlog.

• 6.

  Launch mobile development on Flutter.

• 7.

  Start of the test stage: manual, test cases and autotests.

• 8.

  MVP release to stores.

Features implemented in the app

Find, scan, order

• 1.

  Search for nearest stores so that the customer not only use the app in the nearest Dixy, but also find stores of his favorite chain, being in any area of any city.

• 2.

  Availability and cost so that the customer can quickly find the right product in the app and find out its price in a specific store.

• 3.

  Barcode scanner so that not a single barcode on the product passes by the camera of the buyer's smartphone.

• 4.

  Additional privileges and discounts that customers can choose and use in the store.

• 5.

  Loyalty program (in the Volga regions), which included card discounts, the ability to choose your favorite products, private sales, personalized coupons and product recommendations.

• 6.

  Communication with customers — we have integrated contact center tools into the app so that the user can address any problem and get an answer quickly.

• 7.

  Online delivery is an important option in a pandemic. The need for its implementation was obvious.

Results

The first version of the app was released three months after the start of work.

The Dixy app became the second in the App Annnie rating of all food and food ordering applications in Russia in the first quarter of 2021. Also in the top three were McDonald's and Pyaterochka (according to Kommersant).

In February 2021, Dixy was in the charts of all App Store apps in second place immediately behind Clubhouse and above Telegram.

Development and support

Since the first release, we have been developing the application, adding new features, and supporting.